Investigation of plants and microorganisms used in rennet of van herby cheese prepared by traditional methods

Cheese is the general name for a group of fermented milk-based food products produced in many flavors and forms around the world. Cheese, which has an important place among milk and dairy products, is a frequently consumed food item in Türkiye. In some regions, local cheeses are produced and consumed differently than normally known cheeses. Van Herby Cheese, one of these local cheeses, is a very popular and consumed cheese in Eastern Anatolia and Türkiye. Today, Van Herby Cheese is not yet produced on a large scale industrially, so it is fermented by the local people using different methods. The ones that stand out among these methods are some plants that have been used in making rennet for years. Many plant species are known to be added to rennet. Pimpinella oliverioides Boiss. & Hausskn. (Giha hevin) belonging to the Apiaceae family, used in the preparation of Van Herby Rennet was identified for the first time in this study. Pimpinella L. genus is represented by 29 taxa in Türkiye, 7 of which are endemic. Herbarium materials belonging to the Pimpinella oliverioides species were collected in the field and video and photographic records were taken. Plant samples were turned into herbarium material for identification and are stored in the International VANF herbarium. Additionally, cultivable microorganisms were detected in the rennet content obtained from this plant. Among 15 morphologically distinguished microorganisms, Paenibacillus sp. with proteolytic activity was molecularly identified.